The chief magistrate in Venice while it was a Republic. The first duke or doge was Anafesto Paoluccio, created 697. The chief magistrate of Genoa was called a doge down to 1797, when the Republican form of Government was abolished by the French. (Latin, dux, a duke or leader.

1

For six hundred years . her [Venices] government was an elective monarchy, her . doge possessing, in early times at least, as much independent authority as any other European sovereign.Ruskin: Stones of Venice, vol. i. chap. i. p. 3.

Doge. The ceremony of wedding the Adriatic was instituted in 1174 by Pope Alexander III., who gave the doge a gold ring from off his own finger in token of the victory achieved by the Venetian fleet at Istria over Frederick Barbarossa, in defence of the Popes quarrel. When his Holiness gave the ring he desired the doge to throw a similar one into the sea every year on Ascension Day, in commemoration of the event. (See BUCENTAUR.)

2

Dirty dog. (See under DOG, No. 5.)

3

This alludes more to the animal called a dog, but implies the idea of badness.